SPOILER ALERT: 2012 is nearly over and will go down in history as one of the most twisty turny years for movies in recent memory. It felt like every week played host to a new blockbuster we lived in fear of having spoiled for us. When we finally caught them, they blew our minds with a big third act reveal or a death we just weren't ready to handle. Then there was the week after: were we allowed to talk about it? Who didn't see it already? Who doesn't know?!?
Looking back, here are the juicy tidbits from 2012 that had our heads spinning and our mouths zipped, to ensure that no one out-of-the-know was spoiled:
The Devil Inside: No Ending, Just a Website
January's first movie and modest horror hit The Devil Inside was met with a reasonable backlash when it attempted to continue the spiritual madness on the web. The film concluded with a nightmarish car attack, the invisible ghost jumping from human to human in a fury of violence. Then it just stops, cutting to black and flashing a URL: www.therossifiles.com. 2012 started with an enormous "WTF" moment that people couldn't wait to spoil.
The Grey: The Big Wolf Fight (or Not?)
The trailers for The Grey promised the ass-kicking Liam Neeson we are now familiar with, courtesy of Taken, fighting off a pack of wolves. That rules! But the big spoiler for The Grey is actually what isn't there. Joe Carnahan's film was really an introspective drama about man vs. nature, and the conclusion ended before the epic wolf punching fight even began. Suitable for the tale Carnahan was telling, but anyone looking for a canine brawl who found out the real story beforehand may have had the movie spoiled for them.
Chronicle: Steve Bites the Dust
When Steve (Michael B. Jordan) quite literally takes to the skies to check in on his troubled pal Andrew (Dane DeHaan) he finds out the hard way that his powers don't include the ability to not get struck by lightning. His jarring, shocking death alters the course of the movie, and sends a guilt-ridden Andrew down a very dark path.
Mirror Mirror: Sean Bean Actually Survived a Movie!
Sean Bean dies in everything. There's even video proof. So when the British actor bites the dust in the beginning of Mirror, Mirror, it was business as usual. Color us shocked when the evil dragon plaguing the kingdom and secretly controlled by the Evil Queen turns out to be the King. http://youtu.be/zEhtsgu6bJg
The Cabin in the Woods: The Entire Conceit of the Film
Drew Goddard and Joss Whedon's latest creation was sold as your typical horror movie. A few kids head to the family cabin, stumble upon a room full of suspicious artifacts, and without too much delay, are attacked by a family of undead rednecks. But from frame one, it's apparent Cabin in the Woods is anything but. Behind the scenes of the gruesome events are a team of technicians who… well, maybe it's best to just see this one.
The Raven: The Fanboy Did It
When he's not screaming "EMMMMILLYYY!" at the top of his lungs, The Raven's Edgar Allen Poe (John Cusack) uses his literary knowledge to hunt down a serial killer who has kidnapped his one true love. When the mystery is finally solved, the "big reveal" is more a surprise that the exhausting thriller is finally coming to an end. Turns out, the guy who imitated Poe's stories to kill of his victims was just one of Poe's co-workers who was really into reading. An autograph wasn't enough?
Men in Black 3: Oh, So That's What Happened to Will Smith's Dad
Time travel allowed Men in Black 3 to call back the colorful, kooky alien designs of '60s era sci-fi, but it also allowed them to answer the question no one was wondering: whatever happened to J's dad? Turns out the former military man was murdered by the alien who J pursued back in time to the first Apollo launch. During his escape, he murders J's dad, a young J left behind to be comforted by — you got it — young K.
Prometheus: Weyland Is on Board and Vickers Is His Daughter for Some Reason
One of the major complaints against Prometheus was that Ridley Scott's Alien prequel didn't answer any of the big questions it set out to uncover. Who were the Engineers? Why did they create human life? What was that whole black goo thing about? Prometheus leaves it ambiguous, but it does throw in some twists for those clinging for "answers." For instance, it turns out David the Android was actually following the orders of Peter Weyland, the super old founder of Weyland Corp. who joined the crew in hopes of finding eternal life. And Vickers (Charlize Theron) is revealed to be his daughter! Why? C'mon, do you want everything to be so clear cut?!
That's My Boy: Leighton Meister Is Screwing Her Brother
No one walked into Adam Sandler's R-rated comedy expecting a revelation, but That's My Boy packed a surprise gag that knowing in advance would certainly lessen the blow. Suspecting that his son's fiancée Jamie (Leighton Meister) is cheating, Donny (Sandler) follows her during a routine night out. What he discovers is shocking even for the foul-minded: Jamie is sleeping with her brother Chad.
Brave: The Plot of the Movie… Revealed!
A well-constructed mid-movie twist or a bait and switch? Brave's big twist halfway through Pixar's Scottish fairy tale feels like an entirely different beast: Merida is a princess desperate to live a life in opposition to her overbearing parents, full of adventure. Then Brave takes a literal turn when her Mom actually becomes a bear. The filmmakers behind Brave insisted it was a big spoiler, but in the end, what couldn't be revealed was enough of a twist to deserve a stand alone movie.
Savages: No, It Actually Happened This Way
Oliver Stone has never shied away from a hefty injection of style, but the finale of his latest nearly ODs. A frantic shootout between a drug cartel and the duo of hunky growers and their shared girlfriend (Taylor Kitsch, Aaron Johnson, Blake Lively) ends in a blood bath — just like it did in the book. And then, through the magic of voice over, it undoes it all. Lively's narration reverts the action back to the beginning, with the feds arriving just in the nick of time. WHAT?!?!
The Dark Knight Rises: Comic Book Name-Dropping Out the Wazoo
Christopher Nolan never felt an obligation to the comic book origins of Batman, taking liberties with character origins and picking bits and pieces to suit his needs, but this year's The Dark Knight Rises was a cornucopia of fan service, all working to various degrees of success. The revival of Liam Neeson as Ra's Al Ghul, Marion Cotillard as his daughter Talia (who was actually the kid in the pit prison!), and the reigning champ of 2012 fan service, the reveal that Joseph Gordon-Levitt's John Blake character is actually named "Robin." Three heart attacks later, we can go back and assess, but in the moment, it was a spoiler lover's heaven.
ParaNorman: A Little Dead Girl Controls the Zombies, Who Hanged Her For Being a Witch
Yes, this is the spoilery conclusion of a stop-motion animated film aimed at children. Which is what makes ParaNorman great. After outrunning a hoard of zombies, Norman takes a second to figure out why the zombies are attacking. Turns out the undead Puritans aren't trying to hurt people, they just want Norman to read their controller, the ghost of a little girl who they sentenced to death way back when. Agatha was a medium, so she was sentenced to death. You could see how that would make a gal a little upset. ParaNorman ends with an emotionally complex conclusion and one of the biggest surprises of the year.
Looper: The Angsty Kid Has Superpowers and Might Be an Evil Crime Lord from the Future
Old Joe kicked and punched his way back in time in hopes of killing off future crime lord "The Rainmaker." Turns out — surprise! — his own murderous rampage may have actually been the cause of The Rainmaker (oh, the wonders of time travel logic). We spent a good deal of time wrestling with this idea, but the kid Young Joe encounters when he takes refuge on a local farm turns out to be telekinetic (double spoiler!) and very, very irritable.
Skyfall: The Bond Universe Resets Itself
When Casino Royale stripped Bond of its recognizable parts and took the path of a dark, gritty reboot, audiences thought the 007 series would never look back. Not so thanks to the crafty works of Skyfall director Sam Mendes, whose love for the old days of Bond ushered in a reintroduction of the early movies' ensemble. We got Q back, but the big spoiler was the death of Judi Dench's M and the reinstatement of a male headmaster, along with the reveal that Mi6 agent Eve is the beloved Moneypenny. Familiar faces with modern twists.
The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn — Part 2: Lots of Familiar Faces Die, But It's OK Because It's Only a Vision!
Similar to Savages (and better yet, the little seen Nic Cage film Next), The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn — Part 2 sent Twihards into a twizzy when it changed up the established ending, substituting the novel's anticlimax for an all out war. The Cullens and the Volturi launch into a violent battle and characters that survived the book were suddenly being decapitated. And then in a flash — courtesy of Alice's psychic visions — the action snaps back to before the fight, Aro having witnessed the battle in a premonition. It took until the final ten minutes of the movie for audiences to actually catch their breath.
Lincoln: He Dies at the End
If only you had paid attention in History.
Follow Matt Patches on Twitter @misterpatches
[Photo Credit: Lionsgate; Warner Bros.]
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David Mitchell's novel Cloud Atlas consists of six stories set in various periods between 1850 and a time far into Earth's post-apocalyptic future. Each segment lives on its own the previous first person account picked up and read by a character in its successor creating connective tissue between each moment in time. The various stories remain intact for Tom Tykwer's (Run Lola Run) Lana Wachowski's and Andy Wachowski's (The Matrix) film adaptation which debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival. The massive change comes from the interweaving of the book's parts into one three-hour saga — a move that elevates the material and transforms Cloud Atlas in to a work of epic proportions.
Don't be turned off by the runtime — Cloud Atlas moves at lightning pace as it cuts back and forth between its various threads: an American notary sailing the Pacific; a budding musician tasked with transcribing the hummings of an accomplished 1930's composer; a '70s-era investigatory journalist who uncovers a nefarious plot tied to the local nuclear power plant; a book publisher in 2012 who goes on the run from gangsters only to be incarcerated in a nursing home; Sonmi~451 a clone in Neo Seoul who takes on the oppressive government that enslaves her; and a primitive human from the future who teams with one of the few remaining technologically-advanced Earthlings in order to survive. Dense but so was the unfamiliar world of The Matrix. Cloud Atlas has more moving parts than the Wachowskis' seminal sci-fi flick but with additional ambition to boot. Every second is a sight to behold.
The members of the directing trio are known for their visual prowess but Cloud Atlas is a movie about juxtaposition. The art of editing is normally a seamless one — unless someone is really into the craft the cutting of a film is rarely a post-viewing talking point — but Cloud Atlas turns the editor into one of the cast members an obvious player who ties the film together with brilliant cross-cutting and overlapping dialogue. Timothy Cavendish the elderly publisher could be musing on his need to escape and the film will wander to the events of Sonmi~451 or the tortured music apprentice Robert Frobisher also feeling the impulse to run. The details of each world seep into one another but the real joy comes from watching each carefully selected scene fall into place. You never feel lost in Cloud Atlas even when Tykwer and the Wachowskis have infused three action sequences — a gritty car chase in the '70s a kinetic chase through Neo Seoul and a foot race through the forests of future millennia — into one extended set piece. This is a unified film with distinct parts echoing the themes of human interconnectivity.
The biggest treat is watching Cloud Atlas' ensemble tackle the diverse array of characters sprinkled into the stories. No film in recent memory has afforded a cast this type of opportunity yet another form of juxtaposition that wows. Within a few seconds Tom Hanks will go from near-neanderthal to British gangster to wily 19th century doctor. Halle Berry Hugh Grant Jim Sturgess Jim Broadbent Ben Whishaw Hugo Weaving and Susan Sarandon play the same game taking on roles of different sexes races and the like. (Weaving as an evil nurse returning to his Priscilla Queen of the Desert cross-dressing roots is mind-blowing.) The cast's dedication to inhabiting their roles on every level helps us quickly understand the worlds. We know it's Halle Berry behind the fair skinned wife of the lunatic composer but she's never playing Halle Berry. Even when the actors are playing variations on themselves they're glowing with the film's overall epic feel. Jim Broadbent's wickedly funny modern segment a Tykwer creation that packs a particularly German sense of humor is on a smaller scale than the rest of the film but the actor never dials it down. Every story character and scene in Cloud Atlas commits to a style. That diversity keeps the swirling maelstrom of a movie in check.
Cloud Atlas poses big questions without losing track of its human element the characters at the heart of each story. A slower moment or two may have helped the Wachowskis' and Tykwer's film to hit a powerful emotional chord but the finished product still proves mainstream movies can ask questions while laying over explosive action scenes. This year there won't be a bigger movie in terms of scope in terms of ideas and in terms of heart than Cloud Atlas.
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It was the trickle of pee heard around the world. Cannes attendees were aghast and/or amused an infamous scene from The Paperboy that shows Nicole Kidman urinating on Zac Efron; this is apparently a great salve for jellyfish burns which were covering our Ken Doll-like protagonist. (In fact the term protagonist should be used very loosely for Efron's character Jack who is mostly acted upon than active throughout.)
Lurid! Sexy! Perverse! Trashy! Whether or not it's actually effective is overshadowed by all the hubbub that's attached itself to the movie for better or worse. In fact the movie is all of these things — but that's actually not a compliment. What could have become somethingmemorable is jaw-droppingly bad (when it's not hilarious). Director Lee Daniels uses a few different visual styles throughout from a stark black and white palette for a crime scene recreation at the beginning to a '70s porno aesthetic that oscillates between psychedelic and straight-up sweaty with an emphasis on Efron's tighty-whiteys. This only enhances the sloppiness of the script which uses lines like narrator/housekeeper/nanny Anita's (Macy Gray) "You ain't tired enough to be retired " to conjure up the down-home wisdom of the South. Despite Gray's musical talents she is not a good choice for a narrator or an actor for that matter. In a way — insofar as they're perhaps the only female characters given a chunk of screen time — her foil is Charlotte Bless Nicole Kidman's character. Anita is the mother figure who wears as we see in an early scene control-top pantyhose whereas Charlotte is all clam diggers and Barbie doll make-up. Or as Anita puts it "an oversexed Barbie doll."
The slapdash plot is that Jack's older brother Ward (Matthew McConaughey) comes back to town with his colleague Yardley (David Oyelowo) to investigate the case of a death row criminal named Hillary Van Wetter. Yardley is black and British which seems to confuse many of the people he meets in this backwoods town. Hillary (John Cusack) hidden under a mop of greasy black hair) is a slack-jawed yokel who could care less if he's going to be killed for a crime he might or might not have committed. He is way more interested in his bride-to-be Charlotte who has fallen in love with him through letters — this is her thing apparently writing letters and falling in love with inmates — and has rushed to help Ward and Yardley free her man. In the meantime we're subjected to at least one simulated sex scene that will haunt your dreams forever. Besides Hillary's shortcomings as a character that could rustle up any sort of empathy the case itself is so boring it begs the question why a respected journalist would be interested enough to pursue it.
The rest of the movie is filled with longing an attempt to place any the story in some sort of social context via class and race even more Zac Efron's underwear sexual violence alligator innards swamp people in comically ramshackle homes and a glimpse of one glistening McConaughey 'tock. Harmony Korine called and he wants his Gummo back.
It's probably tantalizing for this cast to take on "serious" "edgy" work by an Oscar-nominated director. Cusack ditched his boombox blasting "In Your Eyes" long ago and Efron's been trying to shed his squeaky clean image for so long that he finally dropped a condom on the red carpet for The Lorax so we'd know he's not smooth like a Ken doll despite how he was filmed by Daniels. On the other hand Nicole Kidman has been making interesting and varied career choices for years so it's confounding why she'd be interested in a one-dimensional character like Charlotte. McConaughey's on a roll and like the rest of the cast he's got plenty of interesting projects worth watching so this probably won't slow him down. Even Daniels is already shooting a new film The Butler as we can see from Oprah's dazzling Instagram feed. It's as if they all want to put The Paperboy behind them as soon as possible. It's hard to blame them.

There is something particularly unnerving about demon possession. It's the idea of something you can't see or control creeping into your body and taking up residence eventually obliterating all you once were and turning you into nothing more than a sack of meat to be manipulated. Then there's also the shrouded ritual around exorcisms: the Latin chants the flesh-sizzling crucifixes and the burning Holy Water. As it turns out exorcism isn't just the domain of Catholics.
The myths and legends of the Jews aren't nearly as well known but their creepy dybbuk goes toe-to-toe with anything other world religions come up with. There are various interpretations of what a dybbuk is or where it comes from — is it a ghost a demon a soul of a sinner? — but in any case it's looking for a body to hang out in for a while. Especially according to the solemn Hasidic Jews in The Possession an innocent young person and even better a young girl.
The central idea in The Possession is that a fancy-looking wooden box bought at a garage sale was specifically created to house a dybbuk that was tormenting its previous owner. Unfortunately it caught the eye of young Emily (Natasha Calis) a sensitive artistic girl who persuades her freshly divorced dad Clyde (Jeffrey Dean Morgan of Watchmen and Grey's Anatomy) to buy it for her. Never mind the odd carvings on it — that would be Hebrew — or how it's created without seams so it would be difficult to open or why it's an object of fascination for a young girl; Clyde is trying really hard to please his disaffected daughters and do the typical freshly divorced parent dance of trying to please them no matter the cost.
Soon enough the creepy voices calling to Emily from the box convince her to open it up; inside are even creepier personal objects that are just harbingers of what's to come for her her older sister Hannah (Madison Davenport) her mom Stephanie (Kyra Sedgwick) and even Stephanie's annoying new boyfriend Brett (Grant Show). Clyde and Stephanie squabble over things like pizza for dinner and try to convince each other and themselves that Emily's increasingly odd behavior is that of a troubled adolescent. It's not of course and eventually Clyde enlists the help of the son of a Hasidic rabbi a young man named Tzadok played by the former Hasidic reggae musician Matisyahu to help them perform an exorcism on Emily.
The Possession is not going to join the ranks of The Exorcist in the horror pantheon but it does do a remarkable job of making its characters intelligent and even occasionally droll and it offers up plenty of chills despite a PG-13 rating. Perhaps it's because of that rating that The Possession is so effective; the filmmakers are forced to make the benign scary. Giant moths and flying Torahs take the place of little Reagan violently masturbating with a crucifix in The Exorcist. Gagging and binging on food is also an indicator of Emily's possession — an interesting twist given the anxieties of becoming a woman a girl Emily's age would face. There is something inside her controlling her and she knows it and she is fighting it. The most impressive part of Calis's performance is how she communicates Emily's torment with a few simple tears rolling down her face as the dybbuk's control grows. The camerawork adds to the anxiety; one particularly scary scene uses ordinary glass kitchenware to great effect.
The Possession is a short 92 minutes and it does dawdle in places. It seems as though some of the scenes were juggled around to make the PG-13 cut; the moth infestation scene would have made more sense later in the movie. Some of the problems are solved too quickly or simply and yet it also takes a while for Clyde's character to get with it. Stephanie is a fairly bland character; she makes jewelry and yells at Clyde for not being present in their marriage a lot and then there's a thing with a restraining order that's pretty silly. Emily is occasionally dressed up like your typical horror movie spooky girl with shadowed eyes an over-powdered face and dark clothes; it's much more disturbing when she just looks like an ordinary though ill young girl. The scenes in the heavily Hasidic neighborhood in Brooklyn look oddly fake and while it's hard to think of who else could have played Tzadok an observant Hasidic Jew who is also an outsider willing to take risks the others will not Matisyahu is not a very good actor. Still the filmmakers should be commended for authenticity insofar as Matisyahu has studied and lived as a Hasidic Jew.
It would be cool if Lionsgate and Ghost House Pictures were to release the R-rated version of the movie on DVD. What the filmmakers have done within the confines of a PG-13 rating is creepy enough to make me curious to see the more adult version. The Possession is no horror superstar and its name is all too forgettable in a summer full of long-gestating horror movies quickly pushed out the door. It's entertaining enough and could even find a broader audience on DVD. Jeffrey Dean Morgan can read the Old Testament to me any time.

There's an allure to imperfection. With his latest drama Lawless director John Hillcoat taps directly into the side of human nature that draws us to it. Hillcoat finds it in Prohibition history a time when the regulations of alcohol consumption were subverted by most of the population; He finds it in the rural landscapes of Virginia: dingy raw and mesmerizing. And most importantly he finds it in his main character Jack Bondurant (Shia LaBeouf) the scrappy third brother of a moonshining family who is desperate to prove his worth. Jack forcefully injects himself into the family business only to discover there's an underbelly to the underbelly. Lawless is a beautiful film that's violent as hell striking in a way only unfiltered Americana could be.
Acting as the driver for his two outlaw brothers Forrest (Tom Hardy) and Howard (Jason Clarke) isn't enough for Jack. He's enticed by the power of the gangster figure and entranced by what moonshine money can buy. So like any fledgling entrepreneur Jack takes matters into his own hands. Recruiting crippled family friend/distillery mastermind Cricket (Dane DeHaan) the young whippersnapper sets out to brew his own batch sell it to top dog Floyd Banner and make the family rich. The plan works — but it puts the Bondurant boys in over their heads with a new threat: the corrupt law enforcers of Chicago.
Unlike many stories of crime life Lawless isn't about escalation. The movie drifts back and forth leisurely popping in moments like the beats of a great TV episode. One second the Bondurants could be talking shop with their female shopkeep Maggie Beauford (Jessica Chastain). The next Forrest is beating the bloody pulp out of a cop blackmailing their operation. The plot isn't thick; Hillcoat and screenwriter Nick Cave preferring to bask in the landscapes the quiet moments the haunting terror that comes with a life on the other side of the tracks. A feature film doesn't offer enough time for Lawless to build — it recalls cinema-level TV currently playing on outlets like HBO and AMC that have truly spoiled us — but what the duo accomplish is engrossing.
Accompanying the glowing visuals and Cave's knockout workout on the music side (a toe-tapping mix of spirituals bluegrass and the writer/musician's spine-tingling violin) are muted performances from some of Hollywood's rising stars. Despite LaBeouf's off-screen antics he lights up Lawless and nails the in-deep whippersnapper. His playful relationship with a local religious girl (Mia Wasikowska) solidifies him as a leading man but like everything in the movie you want more. Tom Hardy is one of the few performers who can "uurrr" and "mmmnerm" his way through a scene and come out on top. His greatest sparring partner isn't a hulking thug but Chastain who brings out the heart of the impenetrable beast. The real gem of Lawless is Guy Pearce as the Bondurant trio's biggest threat. Shaved eyebrows pristine city clothes and a temper like a rabid wolverine Pearce's Charlie Rakes is the most frightening villain of 2012. He viciously chews up every moment he's on screen. That's even before he starts drawing blood.
Lawless is the perfect movie for the late August haze — not quite the Oscary prestige picture or the summertime shoot-'em-up. It's drama that has its moonshine and swigs it too. Just don't drink too much.
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Track star Sanya Richards-Ross is the first athlete of the 2012 Olympic Games to be pegged for a reality show. Surprise! Richards-Ross has beat out the likes of Ryan Lochte, Michael Phelps, and meme-friendly McKayla Maroney for that coveted title of First Reality Star Olympian.
Richards-Ross' show, Deadline reports, will air on WE tv and chronicle the gold medal winner's time leading up to London. In addition to Richards-Ross' intense training regimen, the show is also sure to feature her football stud husband, Aaron Ross, who just signed a $15 million contract with the Jacksonville Jaguars.
With it's celebrity family-oriented programming, WE tv seems like the perfect home for Richards-Ross' show. That got us thinking: Which Olympians would be the best fit for reality shows on other networks? From Spike to ABC Family, here's our athlete/network matchup rundown.
Bravo: Matthew Mitcham
The gold medal-winning Australian diver was the only openly gay male athlete at the 2008 Beijing Games (where he won his medal). Mitcham's story — as well as his good looks and dreamy accent — make him an ideal candidate for a Bravo reality show. The show, as we see it, would essentially follow Mitcham around as he goes about his days. If his tweets are any indication, Mitcham has more than enough charisma to carry a show. On August 8, he even tweeted that if he wins gold in London he will dive off the 10m board naked. Get your cameras ready, Bravo.
Spike: Jordan Burroughs
A manly network needs a competitor in a manly sport. So how about American wrester (and gold medalist) Jordan Burroughs? Rather than another day-in-the-life type show, Burroughs' series could pit him against those brave enough to try to take him down. Ooh, or better yet, he could arm wrestle everyone!
TLC: Oscar Pistorius
Don't groan yet, hear me out. TLC is all about showcasing powerful emotional struggles (which, it's true, often take the guise of the strange or unusual), and we think the network would be able to handle Pistorius' survivor story with aplomb. We would love to see TLC tackle Pistorius' biography and road to the Olympics in a mini-series or special movie event. It's a guaranteed tear-jerker feel good story, to be enjoyed by moms for years to come.
Oxygen: 2016 Olympic Hopefuls
Oxygen loves itself a reality competition featuring hopeful youngsters. From The Glee Project to America's Next Top Model Obsessed and All the Right Moves, Oxygen prides itself on helping talented youths achieve their dreams. Oxyen's Olympics-based reality show, therefore, wouldn't feature a past olympian. Instead, it will chronicle the efforts of 10 young athletes trying to make the next US Olympic Team.
ABC Family: Women's Gymnastics Team
Now that Make It or Break It has been cancelled, ABC Family needs something to fill its gymnastics niche. Enter: The Fab Five. Jordyn, Gabby, McKayla, Kyla, and Aly can hit the gym and have sleepovers together as they prepare for the 2013 World Gymnastics Championships.
MTV: Ryan Lochte
Ryan Lochte is going to have a reality show. The question remains, which network will be lucky enough to nab it? We think MTV might be just the spot. MTV would be able to perfectly highlight Lochte's partying, playboy ways, and highlight his brilliant one-liners.
Follow Abbey Stone on Twitter @abbeystone
[Photo Credit: WENN.com]
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There are some big things brewing in the Disney vat, comic book fans. Ever since that little movie called The Avengers came along, the whole industry has been wondering what Marvel's next step will be — and Disney CEO Bob Iger may have just revealed it.
Yesterday, Iger announced the news that the film's director Joss Whedon (of Firefly and Buffy fame) would return to write and direct The Avengers 2. On top of that glorious announcement, Iger also revealed another interesting tidbit of information: that, as part of the deal, Whedon would help develop a new live-action television series for ABC, featuring Marvel characters. What's that? A Whedon-esque return to television, with superheroes!? Why don't I just hand over all my empty DVR space now!?
Of course, now that we know that TV is in Disney/Marvel's lens, the question becomes: what will this show be about? Or, perhaps more importantly, who will it be about? There are hundreds of characters in the Marvel repertoire, some (like Iron Man) more prolific than others (say, Squirrel Girl or Doorman). Since there are so many to choose from, I tapped into my limited comic book knowledge to dredge up some potential characters who may be swell candidates to lead an Avengers-themed TV show — and just for the hell of it, I cast it, too.
The Attractive Leading Man: Nate Richards (Iron Lad)
Played by: Logan Marshall-Green
One obvious choice for a TV-ready leading man is Nate Richards — strapping, handsome, and with a killer twist: he grows up to become Kang the Conqueror! Talk about interior conflict.
***The Best Friend: Eli Bradley (Patriot) Played by: Michael Jordan In order to fill the best friend slot, Bradley would have to be demoted from the leader of the Young Avengers (a group that itself would make for an excellent primetime program). But Iron Lad and Patriot would be the perfect television echoes to Iron Man and Captain America's cinematic sparring.
***
The Love Interest: Jessica Drew (Spider-Woman) Played by: Laura Osnes You know what they say: when you can't get the rights to Spider-Man, you get the next best thing... Spider-Woman. Who would blame you for getting Broadway belle Laura Osnes into a form-fitting suit?
***The Hunky Mentor: Piotr Rasputin (Colossus) Played by: Joe Manganiello The network would have to drop Piotr's heavy Russian-ness in favor of something more American-casual. Like Pete.
*** The Sensitive One: William Kaplan (Wiccan) Played by: Aaron Tveit Kaplan could easily act as the real heart of the show — a young superhero struggling to come to terms with mutant villains and his sexuality.
*** The Sassy Chick: Emma Frost Played by: Margot Robbie True, Frost can be villainous, but sometimes cold-hearted bitches can be the most fun. Screw that — they're always the most fun.
*** The Precocious Child: Franklin Richards Played by: Chandler Riggs Only because Kiernan Shipka wasn't available.
*** The Celebrity Villain: Wilson Fisk (Kingpin) Played by: Terry O'Quinn Who's the first season's Big Bad? None other than crime boss Kingpin, as played by the cueballed O'Quinn. This, of course, is brilliant casting.
***And Ann B. Davis as Aunt May Follow Marc on Twitter @MarcSnetiker[Photo Credit: Marvel; WENN]MORE: Joss Whedon to Write, Direct 'The Avengers 2' ‘Avengers’ Fever Spreads: ‘Justice League,’ 'Wonder Woman' Movies Find Writers Post-'Avengers': What's Next for the Marvel Heroes

It's looking to be a big year for Jeremy Jordan. Not only has he earned an impressive Tony nod for his starring role in Newsies, but now he's gearing up to smash his way into network television. TV Line reports that the rising Broadway star will be joining the second season of NBC’s musical drama, Smash, as a brand new series regular, where he will play a very sexy (and straight) Brooklyn-born singer with "a self-destructive streak."
And with our sophisticated politician, Dev, completely out of the picture, someone's going to need to fill the void in Karen's devastated heart. Enter: Jordan's character. A Brooklyn bad boy seems like just the sort of thing Karen would be looking for as an excuse to stray away from her former sweet and innocent ways. What better way to get over Dev than to find someone who is the exact opposite?
Plus, something (or rather someone) has got to come between the inevitable Derek-Karen coupling. Jordan would serve as the perfect obstacle to that romance (because, come on, this show isn't exactly known for its happily-ever-afters). And now that former Gossip Girl writer, Josh Safran, has taken the reigns for Season 2, he's bound to bring a few of his go-to character plotlines along with him — or as we like to call it: The Gossip Girl Effect.
For one thing, Safran has a knack for making his characters from Brooklyn pot-stirrers. Take Brooklyn native Dan Humphrey, for instance, who is often the center of numerous romantic conflicts throughout the series. And, of course, there was Brooklynite Vanessa, who delighted in nothing more than stirring up unnecessary trouble for the group (whether she meant to or not). Not to mention the fact that she was constantly lusting after everyone's leftovers. Bad form, Miss Brooklyn.
Safran also integrated bad boy Brooklynite, Aaron Rose, into the plot for the sole purpose of creating a temporary roadblock between Serena and Dan's relationship. So the fact that a Brooklyn guy is about to come into Karen's life can only mean one thing: trouble.
But even in general, Safran always seems to like throwing mystery characters into the mix as a way to spice up the storyline. Jenny Humphrey has made an array of bad decisions when it comes to mysterious men. She even went so far as to aid Damien Dalgaard in his drug dealing operations because she liked his wild lifestyle. What's to say Karen won't do the same sort of thing? It's a technique that's worked for Safran time and time again, so it's almost inevitable that we'll be seeing it in Smash's near future.
Not that we're complaining... everyone loves a bad boy (especially if he can sing).
[Photo credit: DailyCeleb]
Jeremy Jordan Joins Smash
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Widening the thematic scope without sacrificing too much of the claustrophobia that made the original 1979 Alien universally spooky Prometheus takes the trophy for this summer's most adult-oriented blockbuster entertainment. The movie will leave your mouth agape for its entire runtime first with its majestic exploration of an alien planet and conjectures on the origins of the human race second with its gross-out body horror that leaves no spilled gut to the imagination. Thin characters feel more like pawns in Scott's sci-fi prequel but stunning visuals shocking turns and grand questions more than make up for the shallow ensemble. "Epic" comes in many forms. Prometheus sports all of them.
Based on their discovery of a series of cave drawings all sharing a similar painted design Elizabeth (Noomi Rapace) and Charlie (Logan Marshall-Green) are recruited by Weyland to head a mission to another planet one they believe holds the answers to the creation of life on Earth. Along for the journey are Vickers (Charlize Theron) the ruthless Weyland proxy Janek (Idris Elba) a blue collar captain a slew of faceless scientists and David (Michael Fassbender) HAL 9000-esque resident android who awakens the crew of spaceship Prometheus when they arrive to their destination. Immediately upon descent there's a discovery: a giant mound that's anything but natural. The crew immediately prepares to scope out the scene zipping up high-tech spacesuits jumping in futuristic humvees and heading out to the site. What they discover are the awe-inspiring creations of another race. What they bring back to the ship is what they realize may kill their own.
The first half of Prometheus could be easily mistaken for Steven Spielberg's Alien a sense of wonder glowing from every frame not too unlike Close Encounters. Scott takes full advantage of his fictional settings and imbues them with a reality that makes them even more tantalizing. He shoots the vistas of space and the alien planet like National Geographic porn and savors the interior moments on board the Prometheus full of hologram maps sleeping pods and do-it-yourself surgery modules with the same attention. Prometheus is beautiful shot in immersive 3D that never dampers Dariusz Wolski's sharp photography. Scott's direction seems less interested in the run-or-die scenario set up in the latter half of the film but the film maintains tension and mood from beginning to end. It all just gets a bit…bloodier.
Jon Spaihts' and Damon Lindelof's script doesn't do the performers any favors shuffling them to and fro between the ship and the alien construction without much room for development. Reveals are shoehorned in without much setup (one involving Theron's Vickers that's shockingly mishandled) but for the most part the ensemble is ready to chomp into the script's bigger picture conceits. Rapace is a physical performer capable of pulling off a grisly scene involving an alien some sharp objects and a painful procedure (sure to be the scene of the blockbuster season. Among the rest of the crew Fassbender's David stands out as the film's revelatory performance delivering a digestible ambiguity to his mechanical man that playfully toys with expectations from his first entrance. The creature effects in Prometheus will wow you but even Fassbender's smallest gesture can send the mind spinning. The power of his smile packs more of a punch than any facehugger.
Much like Lindelof's Lost Prometheus aims to explore the idea of asking questions and seeking answers and on Scott's scale it's a tremendous unexpected ride. A few ideas introduced to spur action fall to the way side in the logic department but with a clear mission and end point Prometheus works as a sweeping sci-fi that doesn't require choppy editing or endless explosions to keep us on the edge of our seats. Prometheus isn't too far off from the Alien xenomorphs: born from existing DNA of another creature the movie breaks out as its own beast. And it's wilder than ever.
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